12 August 2013

For the Year of Faith: The Vatican Council Dogmatic Constitution on Faith

From the Constitution Dei Filius, Chapter 3, on Faith:Chapter 3
On faith

1. Since human beings are totally dependent on God as their creator and lord, and
created reason is completely subject to uncreated truth, we are obliged to yield to God
the revealer full submission of intellect and will by faith.

2. This faith, which is the beginning of human salvation, the Catholic Church professes
to be a supernatural virtue, by means of which, with the grace of God inspiring and
assisting us, we believe to be true what He has revealed, not because we perceive its
intrinsic truth by the natural light of reason, but because of the authority of God
himself, who makes the revelation and can neither deceive nor be deceived.

3. Faith, declares the Apostle, is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of
things not seen [17].

4. Nevertheless, in order that the submission of our faith should be in accordance with
reason, it was God's will that there should be linked to the internal assistance of the
Holy Spirit external indications of his revelation, that is to say divine acts, and first
and foremost miracles and prophecies, which clearly demonstrating as they do the
omnipotence and infinite knowledge of God, are the most certain signs of revelation and
are suited to the understanding of all.

5. Hence Moses and the prophets, and especially Christ our lord himself, worked many
absolutely clear miracles and delivered prophecies; while of the apostles we read: And
they went forth and preached every, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the
message by the signs that attended it [18]. Again it is written: We have the prophetic
word made more sure; you will do well to pay attention to this as to a lamp shining in a
dark place [19].

6. Now, although the assent of faith is by no means a blind movement of the mind, yet
no one can accept the gospel preaching in the way that is necessary for achieving
salvation without the inspiration and illumination of the Holy Spirit, who gives to all
facility in accepting and believing the truth [20].

7. And so faith in itself, even though it may not work through charity, is a gift of
God, and its operation is a work belonging to the order of salvation, in that a person
yields true obedience to God himself when he accepts and collaborates with his grace which
he could have rejected.

8. Wherefore, by divine and Catholic faith all those things are to be believed which
are contained in the word of God as found in Scripture and tradition, and which are
proposed by the Church as matters to be believed as divinely revealed, whether by her
solemn judgment or in her ordinary and universal magisterium.

9. Since, then, without faith it is impossible to please God [21] and reach the
fellowship of his sons and daughters, it follows that no one can ever achieve
justification without it, neither can anyone attain eternal life unless he or she
perseveres in it to the end.

10. So that we could fulfill our duty of embracing the true faith and of persevering
unwaveringly in it, God, through his only begotten Son, founded the Church, and he endowed
his institution with clear notes to the end that she might be recognized by all as the
guardian and teacher of the revealed word.

11. To the Catholic Church alone belong all those things, so many and so marvelous,
which have been divinely ordained to make for the manifest credibility of the Christian
faith.

12. What is more, the Church herself by reason of her astonishing propagation, her
outstanding holiness and her inexhaustible fertility in every kind of goodness, by her
Catholic unity and her unconquerable stability, is a kind of great and perpetual motive of
credibility and an incontrovertible evidence of her own divine mission.

13. So it comes about that, like a standard lifted up for the nations [22], she both
invites to herself those who have not yet believed, and likewise assures her sons and
daughters that the faith they profess rests on the firmest of foundations.

14. To this witness is added the effective help of power from on high. For, the kind
Lord stirs up those who go astray and helps them by his grace so that they may come to the
knowledge of the truth [23] ; and also confirms by his grace those whom he has translated
into his admirable light [24], so that they may persevere in this light, not abandoning
them unless he is first abandoned.

15. Consequently, the situation of those, who by the heavenly gift of faith have
embraced the Catholic truth, is by no means the same as that of those who, led by human
opinions, follow a false religion; for those who have accepted the faith under the
guidance of the Church can never have any just cause for changing this faith or for
calling it into question.

This being so, giving thanks to God the Father who has made us worthy to share with the
saints in light [25] let us not neglect so great a salvation [26], but looking unto Jesus
the author and finisher of our faith [27], let us hold the unshakable confession of our
hope [28].

A Day That Will Live in Glory

Pray for the Four Cardinals: Burke, Caffarra, Meiser and Brandmuller

“You are the ones who are happy; you who remain within the Church by your Faith, who hold firmly to the foundations of the Faith which has come down to you from Apostolic Tradition. And if an execrable jealousy has tried to shake it on a number of occasions, it has not succeeded. They are the ones who have broken away from it in the present crisis. No one, ever, will prevail against your Faith, beloved Brothers. And we believe that God will give us our churches back some day."